Friends forever?
by Saeas
Summary: Parvati's POV. She's betrayed Lavender- can it be fixed? Reflections on the past five years, and on the present. *CHAP 4 UP* Please R/R!
1. Chapter One

The door to the fifth year Gryffindor girls' dormitory flew open, as Parvati Patil burst through and collapsed onto the middle bed, crying. The deep red curtains around the four poster remained open; she didn't give them a second thought. She lay face down, her body shaking with each painful sob. 'How could I?' she thought. 'My best friend! What have I done?' A sudden thud on the bed caused her to look up. Through her blurred vision, she could make out the familiar outline of her cat, Iballal. Parvati's tears stopped as Iballal rubbed her grey fur against her face. Taking a shaky breath, Parvati knelt up in the middle of her bed and picked up her cat, settling her in her lap. 'Oh Iballal,' she sighed through shallow sobs, absent mindedly stroking her cat's head, 'What have I done? What have I done...'  
  
'She's my best friend,' she thought, 'the best friend I could have asked for... aside from Padma, of course.' But Lavender was a different type of friend; not a friend by default. 'And now I've ruined it all, five years of friendship gone because of my stupidity...' Padma hugged her cat closer, thinking back to her first year at Hogwarts.  
  
*******  
  
I was so excited going through the barrier at Platform 9 3/4. It was twenty to eleven on September the first, 1991. Of course I'd been there before with Pabesh... in fact my first time on the platform was when I was almost one; Padma and I were born in the middle of Pabesh's second term at Hogwarts. But it had been such a long time since I'd been on that platform, four years to be exact, not since Pabesh's final year. It hadn't changed at all, it was exactly how I remembered it, although nothing looked quite as big as it had done when I was seven. I could still remember the smell, a mixture of train stations, cats and owls. I'm not sure if you can smell toads. The noise was immense... students were running all around the platform, shouting for their friends. I noticed a group of about four children chattering away, looking both excited and nervous at the same time, probably first years too. I turned to Padma, who came running through the barrier right behind me, and grinned. I received an identical grin back. We had been so excited the night before that we hardly slept! What house would we be in? Who would we meet? What would the castle be like? Mum had to come into our room at two in the morning to tell us to calm down. Eventually we had drifted off to sleep, into dreams of sorting hats and spells.  
  
Pabesh had even apparated home from India where he's working for their Ministry of Magic to see us off to Hogwarts. He works in the charms department, like my father, although father's worked is based here in England, as he's one of the International Charm Checkers. He said he was owed a few days holiday, so had come back to help us with our trip to Diagon Alley. My father is so busy at work, so mother was glad of the help. Pabesh was very interested in the new-style Hogwarts robes, which had been introduced two years after he left. But it was our wands that Padma and I were most interested in. We knew that the wand chooses its owner, and were quite curious to see why one wand would choose one of us over the other. We wanted to see our magical differences. Both our wands turned out to be cedar, with a unicorn tail hair inside, although Padma's was an inch longer. Hers was particularly suited to potions, mine to charms. I wasn't surprised... as children I was always interested in Pabesh's charm work, while Padma would be content with playing with her 'Potions for Primary Wizards' set for hours.  
  
I had insisted on carrying my wand; I wouldn't let mother pack it in my trunk. I was so excited to finally have one! I spent hours at home just looking at it. Pabesh had bought us both cats as a present. Mine, Iballal, had soft grey fur, while Padma's, Kali, was sleek and black. They were both inside travel cages for the journey, and were busy watching the activity on the platform.  
  
Our trunks were loaded onto a compartment at the very back of the train, and all the animals were put into the next one. There were only ten minutes left until the train set off, so we all walked towards one of the doors. My father hugged us first, telling us to 'Be good, and make sure you study hard!' my mother was quite tearful; our leaving for Hogwarts meant there would be no more children at home- until the holidays, at least. She made us promise to owl her as soon as we could. Then, using both hands, Pabesh ruffled our hair. I wasn't impressed; I had spent about half an hour getting it into a nice, neat plait that ran almost all the way down my back. Padma wasn't best pleased either. 'Pabesh!' she scolded. 'Don't worry you two!' he smiled, bringing out his wand and charming our hair back into tight braids. 'Have fun!' he winked, as we got onto the train.  
  
Most of the compartments were full as we walked down the aisle of the train. We were almost knocked flying by a set of twins chasing someone shouting about a tarantula, when suddenly Padma grabbed my arm. 'Ooh!' she squealed, 'Ooh Parvati! Look!' She was pointing to a compartment on our right. Inside sat a boy with scruffy black hair and round glasses. 'You don't suppose...' 'Harry Potter!' I finished, not so much reading her thoughts, but amazed that I was actually standing five feet away from The- Boy-Who-Lived! If the first few minutes on the Express were anything to go by, Hogwarts was going to be fantastic!  
  
Just then the door to the next compartment slid open, and a tall, thin girl with a chin-length blonde bob stepped out into the aisle. I recognised her from when we had loaded our trunks into the back of the train. 'Hi, I'm Lavender, and this is Sally-Anne.' She indicated a girl with brown curly hair sitting in the compartment. 'Do you want to sit with us?' 


	2. Chapter Two

Padma and I sat down next to each other on one side of the table; I was next to the window opposite Sally-Anne. 'Ooh,' she said as we sat down, 'are you two twins?' Padma and I smiled. We were used to this question, which had a blatantly obvious answer. Mind you, I supposed we'd be asked that quite a few times once we got to Hogwarts. 'Yes,' I replied, 'I'm Parvati...' '...and I'm Padma'. Then Lavender asked us where we were from, and it all started from there. We talked about all sorts during the journey, mainly about what we thought Hogwarts would be like. Sally-Anne had no idea; as she was the oldest sibling, she was the first in her family to go- aside from her parents. Lavender's cousin was starting his third year, so she knew a lot about what to expect. Padma and I told them all about Pabesh, and the work he had done since he passed his N.E.W.T.S. Then there was the issue of houses... Pabesh was a Ravenclaw, and there was no doubt in my mind that Padma would be too. Mother had been a Gryffindor when she attended, but father went to a Wizard school near the Indus Valley, and so the houses had been different. Lavender said that her cousin was in Hufflepuff, but she didn't really fancy it herself. We spent a good deal of time discussing each houses' qualities, although our list was rather short for Slytherin.  
  
Then, typically, our conversation turned to boys. After all, we were eleven years old, female, and heading towards a school where we would spend every hour of more or less every day of the year. You can't expect us to have not given consideration to the fact that we may well meet our future husband on our first day!  
  
'Well, you'll never guess who's sitting in the compartment behind us!' Padma exclaimed. 'Who?' Sally-Anne and Lavender looked curious. 'Only the most famous wizard of our age...' Lavender gasped, 'No!' 'Yes!' Padma giggled, and I joined in with her to Anneounce: 'HARRY POTTER!!' we both laughed when we saw the looks of shock on the two girls' faces. 'Oh my goodness' squealed Sally-Anne, 'wait until I tell my parents!' 'Should we introduce ourselves, do you think?' Lavender asked with a cheeky smile, 'It'd be rude not to...' Padma stood up. 'I'll go and talk to him.' The three of us who remained broke into excited giggles as we watched my sister turn down the corridor, out of sight. She came back, rolling her eyes. 'There's someone in there with him now; he was alone when we got on. A boy with ginger hair was sitting with him and some girl was asking them about a toad...' she shrugged her shoulders 'never mind, there's plenty of time to introduce ourselves. We do have seven years, after all!'  
  
By the time the Express pulled in at the station, we were firm friends. The four of us shared a boat across to the castle, twisting and turning to get a proper look at the castle, so much so that the boat was rocking all over the place. We soon stopped when Padma suddenly remembered that Pabesh had said something about there being a giant squid in the lake...  
  
The great hall was breath taking. Pabesh had described the enchanted ceiling, but I could never have imagined how wonderful it looked to when you were standing underneath it. The floating candles were amazing, too. I really had to learn that spell! The sights were enough to almost make me forget that the whole of the school were looking at us. I felt quite nervous as we approached the sorting hat. Butterflies amassed in my stomach as it sang its song. Then Professor McGonagall began to call out students to come up and be sorted. It was at times like these when I wished our surname were earlier in the alphabet- I'd have less time to worry. Lavender was lucky- her surname was Brown. I watched as she gingerly walked up to the stool and placed the hat upon her head. She glanced up at the hat apprehensively, I supposed it was talking to her. She looked over at us and I sent her a nervous smile. Then the hat proclaimed 'GRYFFINDOR!' Lavender let out a huge sigh of relief, with a smile to match. She practically skipped to the table, where she was met with loud cheers. I grinned at her, then turned my attention back to the hat. It seemed an eternity as more and more students walked up to the stool. The time it took for the hat to decide which house varied between students, but still the intermittent cries rang through the hall: 'HUFFLEPUFF!' 'GRYFFINDOR!' GRYFFINDOR!' 'GRYFFINDOR!' 'SLYTHERIN!' 'HUFFLEPUFF!' 'RAVENCLAW!' 'SLYTHERIN!' McGonagall consulted her parchment, and called out 'Patil, Padma.' I shot her a sideways glance. Padma took a deep breath and started up the stairs. When she put on the hat, she seemed to be listening intently to whatever it was telling her. After about two minutes, the hat gave its verdict: 'RAVENCLAW!' I smiled; it could never have been anything else, really. My stomach gave a lurch as 'Patil, Parvati' rang out across the hall. I walked up to the hat, and placed it on my head, trying not to pay attention to the crowd of faces peering intently at me.  
  
'Ah, another one I see? Two in one year! Now let me think... there's intellect, yes, and a great creativity. Very similar to your sister. But where to put you? You have great qualities; I see you are confident and keen. Yes, I know just where you belong-' I squeezed my eyes shut, and held my breath '-GRYFFINDOR!' I leapt to my feet and ran to the table. Lavender was cheering along with the rest, and I sat down on the bench next to her, she had asked a chubby boy with brown hair to make space for me. Opposite me sat an Irish boy with sandy hair, and next to him was a girl with mousy, frizzy hair who was busy talking to one of the prefects. Then it hit me- I wasn't going to be with Padma- I was on my own. It was a scary but exciting thought. I turned my attention back to the sorting. Sally-Anne was next up to the stool, and soon she became a Hufflepuff. The next name to be called brought an eerie hush over the hall: 'Potter, Harry'. Lavender let out a high-pitched squeak. 'He has to be in Gryffindor, he defeated You-Know-Who when he was just a baby' 'if he's not brave enough for Gryffindor, I'll eat that sorting hat!' I looked down the table to locate who was speaking. It was the ginger-haired twins from the train. They must be incredibly alike to be put in the same house, I mused.  
  
The hat seemed to take for ever with Harry. I supposed it was a difficult decision, he'd defeated the most powerful dark-wizard that ever existed, then spent his life with Muggles, or so I'd read. The sorting hat bellowed 'GRYFFINDOR!!' and our table exploded. The twins were jumping around, grabbing one of their friends shouting 'We got Potter! We got Potter!' Once the celebrations had died down, the sorting continued. There were only a few left waiting now, and two boys became the final Gryffindors for our year.  
  
With a wave of his hand, Professor Dumbledore started the feast. I had never seen such food! As we ate, we began to get acquainted with our fellow Gryffindors. The girl opposite us was Hermione, she was Muggle-born; Seamus was next to her, and Neville sat next to me. Harry Potter was busy talking to Ron; I guessed he was the boy from his compartment. I turned out that the twins, and the prefect Hermione was talking to, were his brothers. Again I wondered why some families were in the same houses, but others weren't.  
  
After the feast, we were lead up to our common room and dormitories. Our room was large and round, with three four-poster beds. It was gorgeous. Lavender bounced onto the left-had bed 'Isn't this exciting!' she gushed. 'I wonder what everyone else will be like?' I asked. 'Well, let's unpack, and we can go down into the common room and meet everyone.' said Hermione. 'Ok' we agreed. I began to unpack my trunk, almost trembling with the thrill of finally being at Hogwarts. 


	3. Chapter Three

The first night we spent in the Gryffindor common room was so much fun. We met everyone in our year properly; there were five boys- Harry, Ron, Dean, Seamus and Neville. They all seemed nice enough, although Neville looked a bit hapless really, and as for Ron's clothes! I suppose he grows fast... he and Dean were the tallest by a long way, about three inches taller than Lavender, who was the next tallest. Then there was Seamus and me, then Hermione, then Neville, then Harry. There wasn't that much height difference really, but if we were to stand in a line it was obvious. The difference that stood out the most was between Ron and Harry. I assumed they had had a similar experience to Lavender and I on the train, and were going to become great friends. I didn't know at that moment how right I was! Admittedly, they've had their ups and downs, but they always sort themselves out. I wish it could happen like that with Lavender. Then again, I don't suppose Ron and Harry ever fight over something like this, or do something as unforgivable as I have...  
  
With the conversation on the Express fresh in my mind, I couldn't help but size up the boys looks-wise. Immediately, I knew that I wouldn't be pining after Neville any time soon. Ron was all right, I suppose, but a bit too tall and gangly for my liking. Seamus was certainly full of the Irish charm, and Dean was great company, too. But there was something about Harry... his hair was a bit scruffy, I know, but there was something special. It was probably the 'super-hero' thing. I mean, Wizards and Witches of our age grew up hearing his name from before we could even talk ourselves! His eyes were fascinating- an emerald green that shone in the firelight. They were definitely his best feature. Lavender was quite fond of Dean and Seamus, and we discussed the boys in great detail that night. Hermione had spent most of her time talking to Neville, she seemed to think that we were too young for boys, 'And besides,' she said 'there's much more to a person than looks you know!' Lavender and I shared a knowing glance, and continued to rate the male portion of the Gryffindor house. We both agreed that, despite the lack of chance either of us had, the athletic looking fifth year who had been sitting in the common room corner talking to the Weasley twins was definitely the most attractive.  
  
*******  
  
Parvati was brought out of her memories as Iballal jumped off her lap onto the floor. She looked up to see that the door to the dormitory was open, and someone was standing, watching her. She wiped the tears away from her eyes, and saw that it was Hermione.  
  
'Parvati? Are you ok?' Hermione ventured cautiously. Parvati shook her head, struggling hard against the fresh wave of tears building up in her eyes. But it was impossible, and she began to cry again. Hermione looked unsure of what to do. After all, she and Parvati could hardly be considered as the best of friends... but she was terribly upset. And following what she had just witnessed in the common room, well, she couldn't just leave her like that. Hermione crossed the room and sat down next to Parvati. 'Oh Hermione!' she exclaimed, burying her head in Hermione's shoulder. Hermione put her arms round Parvati. 'What happened, Parvati? I thought you and Lavender were the best of friends-' 'That's just the problem!' sobbed Parvati 'We were, but now... now I've ruined it. It's all my fault...'  
  
*******  
  
Earlier that evening, Hermione, Ron and Harry were walking towards the Fat Lady, after having been to visit Hagrid. They were laughing about his rock cakes as they stepped through the portrait hole ('leo grandeur'), but their smiles had faded as soon as they noticed the disruption in the common room. Lavender was screeching at Parvati from across the room. Both girls had tears streaming down their faces. Dean appeared to be holding Lavender back, as if she'd tried to slap Parvati. The rest of the common room was deathly silent, the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan were standing on the stairs to the boys' dormitory, Ginny and Colin had abandoned their game of exploding snap by the fire, transfixed by the scene unfolding in front of them. A group of first year girls sitting in one of the corners looked terrified.  
  
'How could you Parvati? How could you?' Lavender's voice was high pitched through anger and tears. 'I'm sorry... I didn't mean to!' Parvati sobbed back. 'You're sorry? Well sorry doesn't make anything change! You're supposed to be my best friend, and all you did was stab me in the back!' This last remark was the final straw for Parvati, who turned on her heel and fled up the spiral staircase to her dormitory. Lavender collapsed into Dean's arms, shaking furiously with every sob. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked to Dean for explanation, but all he could do was shake his head and shrug his shoulders. The trio went over to Ginny and Colin to ask what had happened, and were soon joined by Fred, George and Lee.  
  
'It was awful,' Ginny began. 'We were just playing snap, when Parvati came running through the portrait hole. She wasn't looking where she was going, she almost ran straight through our game. Then Lavender arrived, and started screaming at her...' 'That's when we came down from our dorm,' continued George. 'The two of them were making enough noise to attract even Professor Binns' attention!' 'Dean came out of your dorm just ahead of us' Fred added, looking at Ron and Harry, 'he must have known something was going on...' 'Well, that doesn't surprise me,' Ginny interrupted. 'Lavender was shouting about Seamus- no doubt he'd been telling Dean about whatever happened.' There was a short silence, and then George spoke up. 'Someone should go and see if she's ok...' he was looking in the general direction of Harry, Ron and Hermione. 'Oh no, don't look at me!' Harry protested 'I don't think I'd be the best person to comfort Parvati, she's never really forgiven me for the Yule Ball...' Ron looked equally uncertain. 'You can count me out too. If it's love trouble, I'm definitely not the person to ask...' Fred and George exchanged a smirk. 'We all know that, brother dear,' Fred stated, with a sideways glance at Hermione. 'So, as it's girl trouble, it looks like it's down to you two.' All the boys turned to Ginny and Hermione. 'But I hardly know her...' Ginny looked hopefully at Hermione. 'Oh alright... I'll go... but let it be known,' she added as she headed up the staircase, 'you're all cowards. And you owe me, big time!'  
  
****** 


End file.
